Frank Williams, retiring chairman of the NCGOP Seventh District, was on hand at the Pantano for Congress office grand opening this past week-end, joining over 300 energized conservatives on hand for the event.
We interviewed him at the gathering for USA DOT COM:
"I think there was a great crowd, and it shows that people are interested in making a change next year by putting a new congressman in. There were people from as far away as Fayetteville here today, which I think is impressive.
You know, our conservatives didn’t give up when we didn’t prevail in 2010, and we put the district on the map in that campaign in a race no one thought was winnable at the beginning of the year. We started the job, but it’s not done yet.
VS: With reconfigured congressional districts, what is Ilario going to face?
He does have a primary, and certainly David Rouzer is a formidable candidate. I’ve known David since college, and I think we have two candidates from different ends of the district with different backgrounds. I think either one of them would make a better congressman than the Democrat.
VS: You have announced that you will not run again for District Seven GOP Chair, and will be spending more time with your Pioneer Strategies business. How is that going?
That’s going well, thanks, and I’ll also be spending plenty of time running for Brunswick County commissioner.
The Pantano for Congress Volunteer Office is situated at 8207 Market Street in the Porters Neck Shopping Center. Office hours are weekdays from 12-6 pm.
The Pantano for Congress Volunteer Office is situated at 8207 Market Street in the Porters Neck Shopping Center. Office hours are weekdays from 12-6 pm.
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McIntyre against Brunswick County deep water port.
Proponents see profit in big storage facility in Robeson.
Editorial in robesonian.com 8 days ago.
Robeson County and Lumberton are among more than a dozen local governments in Southeastern North Carolina that are pushing for a state study to determine the pluses and minuses of a deep-water port in Brunswick County.
But this cash-strapped state has not provided the funding for such as study, which has given opponents, including our U.S. representative, an excuse to withhold support.
Economic development officials in this part of the state, including Robeson County’s top guy, Greg Cummings, see a deep-water port delivering thousands of jobs where they are needed, and as far inland as this county, which has land and highway that could do more than hold the Earth together.
Cummings says Robeson County is ideal for large storage facilities where imported goods could be held in preparation for distribution.
But U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, whose District 7 includes Robeson and Brunswick counties, is not a fan of the port. He says the General Assembly’s decision last year to withhold funding for the study amounts to a death knell for the project by making it impossible to secure the required billions of dollars in federal funds. But McIntrye’s own comments betray his true position."
The congressman said: “Several concerns have been raised which have not been fully answered about the location and cost of the proposed terminal, the harm it could pose to our national security interests near our country’s major munitions terminal at Sunny Point and beside a nuclear plant, the lack of necessary infrastructure with roads and rails, and the potential for irreparable harm to the local communities and environment — all of this at a cost to taxpayers of several billion dollars."
All those points are potentially valid, but they only point to a need for the study, and not a scrapping of the project. This nation’s future is increasingly at the mercy of the growing global economy, and economically distressed Southeastern North Carolina needs to scratch for every crumb on the plate. A deep-water port in Brunswick County potentially could lead a renaissance of this region’s economy.
We understand the difficulties of this state’s economy, which led to some hard and unpopular cuts, particularly to education, when the General Assembly crafted the current budget. But we also know that those who don’t carefully plot an economic future will soon enough be living in the past.
There are plenty of questions about the potential of a deep-water port in Brunswick County. Not answering them only ensures they will keep getting asked.
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